Hydrogels have been used as tissue scaffolds for tissue regeneration. However, hydrogels are often designed to be implanted as a liquid or in a flowable format and then cured or crosslinked in situ. Such in situ curing or crosslinking often takes time to complete, which allows for the hydrogel components to leak away from the implant site before and during the curing or crosslinking process. As such, the in situ cured or crosslinked hydrogels shrink or otherwise do not fill an implant site. Also, it is unfavorable to have hydrogel components move away from the implant site, especially when loaded with a bioactive agent that needs to be located in the implant site for functionality.
Thus, it would be advantageous to have an improved system for forming hydrogels that have improved stability without leaking before or during curing or crosslinking.